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Through the Lookingglass

February 21, 2014

Readers — This is a video made by a Norwegian group, SOS Children’s Villages, that gives out coats to Syrians freezing through the war and winter. If you wish to feel good about humanity, click to play. If you wish to help, too, here’s the link. – L

22 Responses to Through the Lookingglass

I see my kids thinking way ahead about what they can do to make littler kids happy. They will make a point to bring their special bear/doll for the tots to hold during gym class. Nobody ever told them to think about such things. It’s natural.

Now how to stop certain grown-ups from trying to recast it as a perversion in our country….

Was it the shivering child who made you cry or the beautiful goodness of people around him? Anyone else notice that no one just snuggled up with an arm around him? That HAD to be the first impulse of some.

“…though: none of them called the police, which is probably what would happen here in the US…”

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It would be interesting to set this up differently to see if busy- bodies would whip out their phones to call the police.

Picture this:

Have a “Dad” waiting with his small “daughter.” Dad wears a parka, scarf, and gloves, while his daughter wears only a thin sweater – no gloves, no scarf, no hat. The girl moves around a lot, playing, laughing. The Dad has the girl’s coat, scarf, and gloves with him. At intervals, he asks the child if she wants her coat or gloves, yet.

There are so many ways a setup could be done to demonstrate interference by Non-parents who always know better.

I dunno who would not consider that child old enough to put his own coat on. Calling the cops would be ridiculous even for most American busybodies. Has it ever happened with such a big kid over a coat?

Now if the kid said “I don’t have a coat and I don’t have any place to go get warm because my parents kicked me out,” maybe.

It is much more free-range in Norway. I think my reaction would have been giving up warmth I could spare (that bare skin against the cold, I know Scandies keep telling me they are hardy folks, but that seems COLD!), then use that smart phone for good, by tracking down the school’s number. The boy might not have had the teacher’s number, but the school should have.

This was sweet, I cannot imagine any adult looking away from a freezing kid. But I just want to say please don’t think my kids don’t have a coat or are being neglected while I’m wearing one. They won’t wear one most of the time.

It is such a lovely video and great that despite the paranoid over pedophiles that people including men still stepped in and helped. Sadly though the paranoid stops a lot of people as they don’t want people to get the “wrong idea”.

That’s so lovely, all of those people taking their coats off and sitting there in short sleeves in the snow, just so the little boy could have a bit of warmth <3 It warms my heart to think that those people were so very kind to that little boy 🙂